Hemodialysis shake-up on the front lines of the Covid-19 pandemic: the Treviglio Hospital experience.

The new coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic in Italy formally started on 21st February 2020, when a 38-years old man was established as the first Italian citizen with Covid-19 in Codogno, Lombardy region. In a few days, the deadly coronavirus swept beyond expectations across the city of Bergamo and its province, claiming thousands of lives and putting the hospital in Treviglio under considerable strain. Since designated Covid-dialysis hospitals to centrally manage infected hemodialysis patients were not set up in the epidemic areas, we arranged to treat all our patients.

The kind of vascular access influences the baseline inflammatory status and epoetin response in chronic hemodialysis patients.

Background: Arteriovenous grafts (AVG) and tunneled permanent catheters (TPC) are increasingly being used in hemodialysis (HD) patients. However, their role in baseline inflammatory status has not been fully evaluated. Aim of the study was to evaluate the influence of the current kind of vascular access on the baseline inflammatory status, marked by serum C-reactive protein (CRP), and the response to epoetin therapy in a group of iron-replete HD patients, under steady clinical conditions, without evidence of acute infections and/or inflammatory diseases.

Transplantation outcome in patients on PD and HD.

In the past, peritoneal dialysis (PD) has been considered a second choice dialysis modality for many aspects and that negative attitude has been extended also to possible negative effects on renal transplantation. In the last years, many papers have faced the question whether PD could attain similar results in renal transplantation as hemodialysis and there is sufficient evidence to answer that question. On the short time after transplantation, patients coming PD have lower prevalence of delayed graft function than hemodialysis patients, but higher prevalence of renal vascular thrombosis, above all in children.

Experience with cyclosporine.

Six hundred thirty-eight cadaveric kidney transplant patients between 1983 and 2001 were treated with cyclosporine (CsA) for 87 +/- 58 months. Among 571 patients with follow-up greater than 12 months, the 15-year renal function was investigated to assess the probability of a >30% increase in serum creatinine (sCr) above the month-6 value (baseline) and the impact on graft survival. At 15 years, patient and graft survival rates were 82.

Epoetin requirement does not depend on dialysis dose when Kt/N > 1.33 in patients on regular dialysis treatment with cellulosic membranes and adequate iron stores.

Background: An inverse correlation between Kt/V and epoetin requirement has recently been demonstrated in stable hemodialysis (HD) patients with adequate iron stores, dialyzed with cellulosic membranes. However, there is no evidence as to whether or not this effect continues for Kt/V even in the adequate or higher range.

Methods: We investigated the relationship between Kt/V and the weekly epoetin dose in 85 stable HD patients (age 63 +/- 16 years) treated with bicarbonate HD and unsubstituted cellulose membranes for 6-338 months (median: 70 months).